4 ms·

The drill example isn't great at all. My immediate guess was that the higher numbers give the drill more power. How it does that (torque/speed/etc) is irrelevan

by internet2000 2y ago

The drill example isn't great at all. My immediate guess was that the higher numbers give the drill more power. How it does that (torque/speed/etc) is irrelevant, as long as it drives a screw that's not going in at a lower number. That's the job to be done. The whole post seems like giving up. It is possible to make things easier to understand in context.

Aachen 2y ago
It seems to me you're precisely proving their point. The drill section starts with: > there’s a whole range of cases where people don’t have to know exactly how something is intended to be used in order to successfully finish a task You're demonstrating being able to get a screw in with it without understanding what it does: it doesn't change the power supply at all, but I can see how you might accidentally use it somewhat correctly while applying this assumption. Isn't that basically what OP meant to demonstrate there?
- kayodelycaon 2y ago
  One of the problems with the question was the answers you had to pick from. I know exactly what the ring on a drill does. It limits the force of the bit and stops me from damaging the heads of screws. I have a vague idea of how it works mechanically but I can never remember what torque means. It’s possible to know how to use something without knowing the actual mechanics that make it work.
levocardia 2y ago
I had a similar reaction--I know exactly what that dial does, my reaction was "it determines how hard the drill will screw something in until the front part starts going tick-tick-tick." On a physical level I know what it does and when to use it (all the way up for drill bits, really low for screws going into a soft material), but when I saw the questions I had no idea what the correct answer was. I've always found drills to be extremely intuitive--it's four really simple physical binary things: squeeze the trigger to make it go, flip the switch on top to make it go faster, turn the dial to make it it stop before it goes too hard, and punch the toggle to make it go the other way. I wish software was that easy.

Aachen 2y ago

It seems to me you're precisely proving their point. The drill section starts with: > there’s a whole range of cases where people don’t have to know exactly how something is intended to be used in order to successfully finish a task You're demonstrating being able to get a screw in with it without understanding what it does: it doesn't change the power supply at all, but I can see how you might accidentally use it somewhat correctly while applying this assumption. Isn't that basically what OP meant to demonstrate there?

kayodelycaon 2y ago
One of the problems with the question was the answers you had to pick from. I know exactly what the ring on a drill does. It limits the force of the bit and stops me from damaging the heads of screws. I have a vague idea of how it works mechanically but I can never remember what torque means. It’s possible to know how to use something without knowing the actual mechanics that make it work.

levocardia 2y ago

I had a similar reaction--I know exactly what that dial does, my reaction was "it determines how hard the drill will screw something in until the front part starts going tick-tick-tick." On a physical level I know what it does and when to use it (all the way up for drill bits, really low for screws going into a soft material), but when I saw the questions I had no idea what the correct answer was. I've always found drills to be extremely intuitive--it's four really simple physical binary things: squeeze the trigger to make it go, flip the switch on top to make it go faster, turn the dial to make it it stop before it goes too hard, and punch the toggle to make it go the other way. I wish software was that easy.